J Is For Joy
by Synbou
Summary: A little something brightens up Don's day.


Series: Numb3rsSeason: 2  
Part: 1/1  
Rating: K+

**Disclaimer: Numb3rs and its lovely characters don't belong to me. They do to CBS. Unknown OC belongs to me. We all know the drill…**

A/N: First, English is not my primary language, French is. Although, I wrote fanfiction in English before in another fandom… It's been awhile since I have done so. Please excuse my mistakes. Thanks!

**This story has been written for the Summer Alphabet Fic Challenge. Such a cool challenge!**

**Enjoy!**

**Summary**: A little something brightens up Don's day

**J is for Joy **

by Isabell S

000

It was almost 10:30 a.m. when Don and Megan came back to the FBI Field Office in LA. They had left early that morning to follow up on a lead in a serial murder case.

The lead had turned up to be a total waste of time, like many other leads they had had so far. This particular investigation was going nowhere and the entire team was starting to feel the strain. Even Charlie could not come up with a workable hypothesis.

Don sighed despite himself as he walked up to his cubicle. He dropped his keys on his desk, then removed his wet FBI jacket. He hanged it on the back of his chair to dry. It had been raining seen the wee hours of the morning and the day's weather was promising to stay cold, damp and grey. The rain did nothing to improve Don's already gloomy mood.

He was frustrated, even a bit discouraged.

There was a man out there raping and killing teenage girls, before leaving their bodies naked and mutilated in dumpsters. They had found six so far. Yet, they had nothing on this monster.

_He_ had nothing.

Don felt like he had ran out of ideas days ago. He was slipping, he though. Had he already come to a point where, without one of Charlie's mathematical solutions, he could not do his job properly? What had happened to his instincts, his wits, whatever had made him an accomplished agent? Could he even still believe in the positive side of the job he did?

Now, each new young victim was making him feel like a failure – like he had failed from protecting them. How could he keep motivating his team when he, himself, was loosing the confidence in his ability to stop this sadistic psychopath?

"Beating yourself up, again?" Megan asked him gently, as she put down a cup of freshly brewed coffee on his desk.

Her voice brought him out of his ruminating thinking.

He nodded. There were no point in denying it. "Thanks for the coffee."

"No problem," she said. "Did you hear from Colby or David?"

Granger and Sinclair were out there coordinating search efforts with the LAPD.

Don shook his head negatively. "No. That monster did killed again. We just haven't found the body yet, but we will. He's gonna keep making sure of that," he reminded her.

She simply nodded. She then turned her back to him and reached for her phone in order to check her voicemail.

Don decided to do the same. It was time to stop brooding and do some real work. He took note of the people he had to call back, then moved his attention to his snail mail inbox. Quickly, a light green card envelop with smilies stickers all over it stood out from the pile.

Don felt a small grin creep on his face. It turned into a full smile as he read the returned address, written on the left corner of the envelop. He discarded everything else back in the inbox. He took a sip of coffee. He leaned back in his chair and finally opened the envelop.

He found a graduation picture of a young woman inside a thank you card with a big smiling sun on top. Don stared at her face memorized.

The none-so-delicate teenager he had met a few years back was turning into one fine lady. She had let her long dark curly hair down on her shoulders. She still had that spark in her brown eyes that he found so inspiring. Her smile was radiant. She looked proud and happy.

Don's own smile reached his eyes.

_Without you, this wound not have been possible_, he read. _Thank you for never giving up on me. Sincerely, Joy. _

He sighed, this time with contentment. He felt some of that tensions in his neck finally leave his body.

"She's beautiful," Megan's voice came over his shoulder. "Who is she?"

"Spark," he replied fondly, looking back at Megan.

"What?"

Don chuckled.

"Her name is Joy. She was a member of a middle school's baseball team I used to coach back in New Mexico."

His smiled faded.

Sensing the sudden sadness in her friend's demeanour, Megan put a hand on his shoulder.

"One day, when she was thirteen, Joy was taken hostage and then kidnapped during a bank robbery gone wrong." Don swallowed, then continued. "I ended up being the lead investigator in charge of her case. It took me eighteen days to find her. Almost everybody had given up hope of ever finding her alive."

"Except you," Megan stated.

"You see that spark in her eyes?" Don pointed out. "I just couldn't imagine seeing it die. So, I kept on searching. Finding her had been something, bringing the two of us back home in one piece had been something else… Lucky for us, her kidnappers could make the difference between robbing banks and killing people. Yeah." He nodded absently. "All things considered, we were lucky."

"This couldn't come in on a better day, could it?" Megan remarked, referring to the card that had so suddenly lighted up her boss's mood.

Don smiled back at her, again. "I needed that, huh? You know what? I think I'm gonna give her a call. Congratulations are in order."

"That's a great idea!" his partner agreed, enthusiastically.

It took Don less than two minutes to look up Joy Taylor's phone number.

"_Hi, Agent Eppes_!" greeted a young woman, the moment his call was answered.

"Hey, Sparkie. I see you got caller ID now, huh? How are you?"

"_I doing great! You?_"

"Good. You look fantastic on that grad picture. You're lovely smile brightened my gloomy and rainy day."

"I'm glad it did. I just wanted to take a minute and thank you again for all that you did for me."

"Well, today, I'm the one who wish to thank you."

"Oh? What for?" Joy asked, puzzled.

"For reminding me why I doing my job," he told her.

"You have a difficult case?" she inquired, knowingly.

"Yeah," he replied. "But now, not only do I have joy again, I have hope, too. Thanks ,Spark!"

"You're welcome, Coach. Anytime."

000

The end

May 2006.


End file.
